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versaries AIR RCEF IN THE RAAF T From left, ACW Amber Armstrong-Waters, FLTLT Ross King, OFFCDT Danny Kitcher and CO 34SQN WGCDR Angus Porter, at the unit’s 75th anniversary celebrations. Photo: CPL Mark Doran andard in ongevity started as a bomber e Abbott reports on fly-past, including a restored Hudson, ow-level aerobatics display by a PC-9 from Flying School. QN was formed in Port Moresby in ry 1942 and was initially a reconnaissance mber squadron. These days its primary e training and air logistics. was a proud day to be the commanding of this squadron and to be celebrating this ement with both current and former memWGCDR Drummond said. mmander Air Force Training Group DRE Geoffrey Harland said 32SQN had ued a proud tradition of training and air y within Air Force over many decades. hen 32SQN was formed in 1942, it started a reconnaissance and bomber squadron, with searching large tracts of ocean to enemy ships,” he said. day, 75 years on, 32SQN uses modern Air aircraft to train air combat officers and n warfare officers, and provide airlift supthe ADF.” said 32SQN was “a credit to the RAAF wider ADF”. March 9, 2017 11 unit on the go Variety’s been 34SQN’s secret, Eamon Hamilton writes Moving with the times keeps a HROUGHOUT its 75 years No. 34 Squadron has added a variety of remarkable passengers, cargo and milestones to its history books. Formed in Darwin in February 1942, the squad- ron has carried everything and everyone, including the Royal Family, governors-general, and government leaders. During its early years, 34SQN carried friendly and foreign prisoners of war, essential wartime supplies and experiments for aerospace development. At Defence Establishment Fairbairn, on February 23, members of 34SQN and their families celebrated the 75th anniversary of the unit’s formation. Its origins are rooted in Air Force’s formation of four dedicated air transport units in early 1942, as Australia mobilised against Japanese forces in South East Asia. The squadron was established four days after Darwin was hit with its first aerial bombardment on February 19, 1942. With just six personnel and two DeHavilland DH.84 Dragon biplanes, its first task was to transport the first Japanese prisoner of war to be captured on Australian soil. On February 24, 1942, FLTLT E. M. Dunn flew in a twin-engine Dragon from Darwin to nearby Bathurst Island, where he collected Hajime Toyoshima. During a raid against Bathurst Island’s aerodrome, Toyoshima’s A6M Zero fighter had been damaged and had came down on nearby Melville Island. The 34SQN Dragon took Toyoshima under armed guard to the mainland. However, the war soon came to the squadron. As 34SQN’s other Dragon landed at Wyndham airfield in Western Australia on March 3, 1942, it was set upon by Japanese Zeros. Their Dragon ablaze, the crew and passengers narrowly escaped. Among them was Air Force wireless operator Thomas Bradshaw, who was key to the Allied interception of Japanese naval and military traffic. While additional Dragon, Anson and Tiger Moth aircraft were assigned to 34SQN, it struggled to work from bases in the Northern Territory before relocating to Parafield near Adelaide in January 1943. In May 1943 it received its first C-47 Dakota transport aircraft and in June became the first operational RAAF unit with Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) personnel in its ranks. The WAAAF provided critical support to the 34SQN Dakotas’ part in the Allied transport effort in New Guinea, airdropping key supplies to troops engaged in bitter rainforest warfare. The Dakotas followed the Allied advance into Morotai, The Mystere 20, BAC-111 and HS748 made up the 34SQN fleet from 1967 until 1989. Tarakan and Labuan, repatriating Australian prisoners of war, before 34SQN was disestablished in June 1946. A new dawn for 34SQN came with the British requirement to test postwar rocket designs in the Woomera Test Range in South Australia. At Mallala Airfield in South Australia in 1948, 34SQN was re-established, ferrying people and equipment with an assortment of British twinengine transports. These included the Bristol Freighter, with its unique clamshell nose that can load and unload cargo. In October 1955, 34SQN was disbanded, but was reestablished at RAAF Base Canberra in March 1956. It took over the VIP Flight of No. 36 Squadron, and was tasked in the role it carries on today – providing flexible and effective transport for the Governor-General and Australian Government leaders. Equipped with Dakotas and Convair Metropolitans for the transport role, 34SQN also took on Vampires and Winjeel training aircraft for a time. It has also operated a host of special-purpose aircraft, from the Vickers Viscount and HS748 turboprops to the BAC-111 and Mystere 20 jets. In 1988, one of the first female Air Force pilots, PLTOFF Deborah Hicks, arrived at 34SQN to fly the Mystere. From 1989 until 2002, the unit operated the Dassault Falcon 900 transport, before transitioning to its mixed fleet of Challenger CL604s and Boeing Business Jets. Now it stands on the cusp of another change to its fleet as the squadron looks at selecting a new platform. CO 34SQN WGCDR Angus Porter said the new plat- 34SQN C-47 Dakotas played a crucial part in the Allied transport effort over New Guinea during WWII. form would sit alongside 33SQN’s introduction of a new KC-30A “to provide strategic government transport, equipped with communications equipment allowing global communications”. “It is an exciting time for the squadron, and Air Force is well positioned to deliver a new era of excellence in VIP transport,” he said.